My Science School

It affects them like alcohol affects humans, resulting in flying accidents. They also find it difficult to get back to their hive. Not just that, they are prohibited from entering their hive by the other bees at the hive.

After sucking on fermented limes, a drunken bee will return home to its hive (if it can make it back, that is).  Because of the honey bee’s complex and intricate way of communicating through their waggle dance, it is not very difficult for the other members of a colony to detect the drunken bee.  Once spotted, the guard bees of the hive will immediately begin their investigation and punishment.  The rules of the honey bee society are quite strict, and without much thought, the guard bees will begin to bite off the drunken bee’s legs as punishment.  One by one the bee’s legs are torn off, and the poor drunk honeybee doesn’t have much of a chance of living after her traumatic leg removal.  This sort of punishment serves as a warning to the rest of the hive to never stray away from their duties to their colony.

"On the molecular level, the brains of honey bees and humans work the same. Knowing how chronic alcohol use affects genes and proteins in the honey bee brain may help us eventually understand how alcoholism affects memory and behavior in humans, as well as the molecular basis of addiction,” stated Julie Mustard, a study co-author and a postdoctoral researcher in entomology at Ohio State University.  Mustard studied the effects that ethanol (the intoxicating agent in liquor) had on honeybee behavior.  This study could eventually prove the long term and social effects that alcohol has on human behavior.

Credit :  Ripleys 

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Only female bees can sting. A bee's sting is like a sharp thorn at the end of its abdomen. If the thorn is left in your flesh, the bee cannot sting again!

When a honey bee stings you, its sharp, barbed stinger pierces the skin. This stinger injects a venom called apitoxin. In most cases, the stinger gets stuck in the victim’s skin and tears loose from the bee. In most cases, this is a massive injury to the honey bee. Other parts of its body rip off with the stinger, killing the bee. The stinger then continues to pump venom into the victim for up to 10 minutes or until it is removed.

Honey bees are the only bee species that die after stinging. However, honey bees sometimes survive after stinging if the victim’s skin is thin and doesn’t hold the barbed end of the stinger. This doesn’t happen often, though, because honey bee stingers are designed to stick in the skin of the victim to release as much venom as possible.

Bee stings can be quite painful. For some people, though, they can actually be deadly. Some people are allergic to the venom in bee stings. For these people, a sting can trigger a dangerous allergic reaction. If you‘re outside with a person who’s allergic to bees, make sure you know where to find help if they are stung.

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Many pond insects seem to walk on water. They do so because of the surface tension. The pond skater's legs press into a kind of elastic skin on the surface of the water but don't go through!

Water acts different at the surface. Water molecules are attracted to each other and like to stay together, especially on the surface where there is only air above. The attraction between water molecules creates tension and a very delicate membrane. Water striders walk on this membrane.

Water striders are about a half-inch long with a thin body and three sets of legs. The water strider's secret is its legs. The legs have tiny hairs that repel water and capture air. By repelling water, the tiny water striders stand on the water’s surface and the captured airs allows them to float and move easily.

The water strider's shorter front legs are used for catching and holding onto food. Water striders eat insects and larvae on the surface of water, such as mosquitoes and fallen dragonflies.

Credit : National Wildlife Federation 

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It is fossilised resin from conifer trees that seeped out millions of years ago. Often insects were trapped inside. It lies buried until it is washed up on the seashore.

Amber occurs as irregular nodules, rods, or droplike shapes in all shades of yellow with nuances of orange, brown, and, rarely, red. Milky-white opaque varieties are called bone amber. The turbidity of some amber is caused by inclusions of many minute air bubbles. Many hundreds of species of fossil insects and plants are found as inclusions. Deeply coloured translucent to transparent amber is prized as gem material.

Modern investigative techniques are directed toward isolating and identifying as many as possible of the individual resin components and, ultimately, to establishing a genetic relationship between fossil resins and modern resin-producing trees. By means of infrared spectroscopy, Mexican (Chiapas) amber has been shown to be related to a modern leguminous tree, Hymenaea. Though in the past amber was believed to be completely amorphous, subsequent X-ray diffraction studies have revealed crystalline components in some fossil resins.

Ornamental carved objects, beads, rosaries, cigarette holders, and pipe mouthpieces are made from amber. Amberoid, or “pressed amber,” is produced by fusing together small pieces of amber under pressure. Parallel bands, or flow structure, in amberoid help to distinguish it from natural amber. Despite the introduction of numerous synthetic substitutes, the beauty of the real material has remained unexcelled.

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